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Protomartyr
Since their 2012 debut No Passion All Technique, the Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage. Protomartyr—vocalist Joe Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard, and bassist Scott Davidson—have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique. The group’s sixth album, recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, is called Formal Growth In The Desert. And though frontman Joe Casey did have a humbling experience staring at awe-inspiring Sonoran rock formations and reckoning with his own smallness in the scheme of things – as recounted in the single “Elimination Dances” – the title is not necessarily a nod to the sandy expanses of the southwest. Detroit, too, is like a desert. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol,” Casey says, “of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.” The desert brings an existential awareness that is ultimately internal. The “growth” came from a period of colossal transition for Casey, including the death of his mother. Now 45, Casey had lived in the family home in northwest Detroit all his life until 2021, when a surge of break-ins signaled that it was time to move out. As with all touring artists, the pandemic years also brought on other inner quandaries about the purpose and feasibility of a musician’s life. But life does go on, and Casey describes the great theme of Formal Growth In The Desert as an embrace and acknowledgment of that fact: a 12-song testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard. “I was trying to find a way forward after some pretty heavy things, without lyrically resorting to, Oh my god, my life sucks,” Casey says. “I was trying to see what was beyond the trouble.” The titles of the two opening songs—the moody “Make Way” followed by the charging ennui of “For Tomorrow”—complete that thought. The band’s music—more spacious and dynamic than ever—pulled him up, too. Guitarist Greg Ahee, who co-produced Formal Growth In The Desert alongside Jake Aron (Snail Mail, L’Rain), knew what Casey was going through. Conceptualizing the music, he considered how to make it all “like a narrative film.” Having recently scored a pair of short films, Ahee found himself immersed in the cinematic Spaghetti Western music of Ennio Morricone. “I started to write at home on a piano and on a keyboard and then play along to short films, and watch how you can affect and heighten moods as you play,” Ahee explains. The filmic sensibility is manifest in Casey’s storytelling, too, whether he’s critiquing ominous techno-capitalism or processing aging, the future, and the possibility of love. Casey calls the centerpiece, “Graft Vs. Host,” written in the immediate wake of his mother’s death, the heaviest song on the record, but it is also among Protomartyr’s most beautiful. It opens with an ominous sprawl before Casey’s sweet, coiling melody buoys the subject matter: “Sadness running through my mind/She wouldn’t want to see me live this way,” he sings, an earnest inquiry into how grief manages to eventually make way for other emotions. Website · Bandcamp · Facebook · Instagram
Stephen Dawes Presents The Skin to Skin Tour
Stephen Dawes is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer whose music tells a coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of handcrafted alternative pop, rooted in loose beat-craft and breezy Stratocaster-spun riffs. Born in New York, Stephen spent his early childhood in a small town on Cape Cod before moving to San Francisco. He began piano lessons at 4-years-old, started writing original songs by fourth grade, and in high school joined jazz band and learned how to produce. Stephen was first discovered as a freshman in college when he recorded an acoustic rendition of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” that exploded with over 200 million Spotify streams and over 50 million views on YouTube. Since then, he has released two EPs titled *Up At Night* and *The Day We Met* and a handful of tracks including “Reputation,” “Irregular,” and “Symptoms.” In early 2025, Stephen was the opening act for Matt Hansen’s European tour, and also opened for Griff in 2024 on the Vertigo Tour. Website
L’Rain
L’Rain has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sold goes to Sounds of Saving and their work designing and providing tools, content, resources, and curriculum to young people on how to discover and utilize music to support their mental health and wellness. L’Rain is the musical project of multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and curator Taja Cheek. Operating between the worlds of art and music, and outwards into film, fashion and cultural discourse, Cheek is forging a unique path that transcends disciplines to become one of the most vital and adventurous voices for this warped contemporary moment. Currently the artistic director of Performance Space NY and readying the release of L’Rain’s fourth album, fata morgana, Cheek’s creative impact resonates through her uncompromising commitment to community-building, navigating structural inequality while challenging musical conventions and expectations at every turn. L’Rain is its thrilling manifestation. Raised in Brooklyn and rooted in the city’s vibrant noise community, Cheek’s world was defined by a tension of contrasts from the off — classically trained yet steeped in DIY iconoclasm, drawn to lush orchestrations and gritty tape loops alike, finding cracks in established forms, taking risks and letting the light pour through. Fascinated by the schisms, feedbacks and distortions that emerge between identity and society at large, Cheek worked closely with collaborators Ben Chapoteau-Katz and Andrew Lappin to hone a sound for L’Rain that is intense, playful, seductive and deeply personal, deconstructing pop tropes with impressionistic flair and subverting the very notion of experimental music within the Black American tradition. Where the “psychic collage” of self-titled 2017 debut revelled in the collisions of hi- and lo-fi technology, it was 2021’s Fatigue that propelled L’Rain to a wider audience. Gaining critical acclaim from NPR, album of the year in The Wire and #2 in Pitchfork’s best albums of 2021, it set the foundations for 2023 album I Killed Your Dog, which skewed towards ‘90s RnB influences — a bold, bratty, diabolical anti-break-up record that untangled Cheek’s relationship with femininity and the formal musical conventions that others imposed on her. fata morgana is the daring and ambitious high point of this quadrilogy of L’Rain releases. A heady synthesis of sonic influences, from digi-dub, dream pop and gospel slow jams to tape meditations and crunched thrash metal, it is an album that effervesces in the messiness of life, interrogating power relations while reckoning with self-doubt, self-love and the mirages of belonging and alienation that shape Cheek’s lived experience of the United States today. This capacity to articulate emotional nuance within a wider societal critique has defined Cheek’s curatorial work with major institutions like Creative Time, the High Line, and MoMA PS1, where she reframed the music programme over several years. Challenging the systemic barriers to representation in the arts, Cheek’s accessible and community-centred approach defined her success as guest curator of the 2024 Whitney Biennial and extends to her current role at Performance Space NY, whose programming has shaped cultural, theoretical and political discourse over four decades. Website · Instagram · Facebook · Spotify
Songs From The Road Band, Big Fat Gap
Songs From The Road Band is an award winning Asheville, North Carolina based bluegrass band featuring Mark Schimick (mandolin), Charles Humphrey III (bass), Sam Wharton (guitar), James Schlender (fiddle), and Gabe Epstein (banjo). Their most recent single ‘Outside Of Omaha’ went to number one on the Bluegrass Today Grassicana chart. They have 6 studios albums available at all musical outlets. Website · Facebook · Instagram · YouTube
The Rattletraps Album Release Party
The Rattletraps are a band of songwriters based in Durham, NC, creating a culmination of roots rock, country and blues music. Come help celebrate the release their debut album, Cuff and Collar on August 1st at the Cat’s Cradle back room! Website
Jack The Songman
JACK THE SONGMAN Jack The Songman is a new artist from North Carolina determined to show you a good time straight from the heart. The man behind the song, Jack Carmichael, has been making music in the Triangle for more than a decade. Under the “Songman” moniker, he writes songs with a funky, classic pop sound that feels familiar but sincere. Love, togetherness, and celebration of the mundane are central motifs baked into the entire Songman catalog. Born into a family of musicians, Carmichael has been a member of various musical ensembles since childhood—however, it wasn’t until his mid-twenties that he stepped into the dual role of frontman and songwriter as Jack The Songman. With the support of lifelong friends and collaborators (known collectively as The Songman Band), Carmichael has forged a genre-melding, piano-driven sonic identity that weaves together elements of yacht rock, funk, and power pop while calling to mind musical forces such as Michael McDonald and Ben Folds. Since stepping onto the scene, the Songman has made a name for himself playing high-energy shows throughout the Triangle. Carmichael’s songwriting craft has made an impression on his hometown, generating a commission to write and record the signature jingle for Chapel Hill’s radio station, 97.9 The Hill WCHL. Website · Instagram · Spotify · Bandcamp · YouTube PINT NIGHT Conceived in the heart of Chapel Hill, Pint Night is a new indie rock band composed of five members: Jack Carmichael (keys), Reese McDonald (bass), Ryan Anderson (drums), Sameen Salam (aux keys), and Connor Luckey-Smith (guitar). The lineup originally met while attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where they bonded over their shared love of tight vocal harmonies, serviceable pints, and making merry. After many years of hangs, jam sessions, and post-grad pints, all five friends had the exact same revelation in 2025: “We should form a band and call it Pint Night.” The five-piece is excited to share their catalog of soul-infused alt-rock headbangers across the Triangle for weeks, if not months, to come. Website · Instagram LAURA IVY Laura Ivy is an independent singer-songwriter based in North Carolina. Her first debut Mansion of Rain focuses heavily on lyricism regarding internal thought processes one goes through in day-to-day life; the questions, validations, and related analogies of nature. Vocals, the background, and lead voices are the mediums for such questions and answers, mimicking the voice of human thought that plays throughout each day. Website · Instagram · Spotify
Southern Culture on the Skids
Southern Culture On The Skids has been consistently recording and touring around the world since 1983. The band (Rick Miller – guitar and vocals, Mary Huff – bass and vocals, Dave Hartman – drums) has been playing together for over 30 years. Their musical journey has taken them from all-night North Carolina house parties to late night TV talk shows (Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show), from performing at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan to rockin’ out for the inmates at North Carolina correctional facilities. They’ve shared a stage with many musical luminaries including Link Wray, Loretta Lynn, Hasil Adkins and Patti Smith. Their music has been featured in movies and TV, parodied by Weird Al, and used to sell everything from diamonds to pork sausage. In 2014 the band was honored by the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with an exhibition featuring their music and cultural contributions. Their legendary live shows are a testament to the therapeutic powers of foot-stomping, butt-shaking rock and roll and what Rolling Stone dubbed “a hell raising rock and roll party.”At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids is the latest full length album from the band and is due to drop into stores on March 12th. The album consists of 11 tracks recorded and mixed in Rick Miller’s living room with some additional tracks recorded at his studio, The Kudzu Ranch.The first radio single off the album is “Run Baby Run”—a rocking number with deep garage roots. SCOTS bassist Mary Huff provides an urgent vocal while the band pulls back the throttle on a full race fuzz fest—cause she’s gotta to go fast! Run Baby Run!The other songs on the album are a combination of the band’s unique mix of musical genres: rock and roll, surf, folk and country—all a bit off-center, what Rick proudly calls “our wobbly Americana”. Rick goes on, “We put a few more acoustic guitars on this one, as you would expect if you recorded in your living room, but it still rocks like SCOTS. So put your headphones on, get in your favorite chair/sofa/recliner, put on “At Home With” and let’s hang out for a while.” Guitar riffs as lumpy as a camel, rough as a jackhammer or smooth and bright as Tennessee sippin’ whiskey, all slung loose and loud over salacious beats – No Depression For over thirty years, Southern Culture On The Skids have played an eclectic range of Americana including rockabilly, surf rock, country and R&B, with a punk edge and heaps of humor. They are known for their legendary live shows and wacky antics…But it’s more than just great fun; they are fantastic musicians to boot. – Elmore Magazine This Chapel Hill-based trio is flat-out amazing. Without resorting to needless flash or attention-hungry showboating, Miller in particular is one of the most spectacularly gifted guitar players I’ve ever seen. He juggles a lot of styles – country, garage rock, surf, rockabilly and soul to name just a few. – Stomp & Stammer Website · Facebook · Instagram
Popsicle
Featuring The Connells, Superdrag, Chuck Prophet, Young Fresh Fellows, The Mayflies USA, The Popes, Jonny Polonsky, Five Eight, Bass Battery. Taking place at Cat’s Cradle Back Yard, Cat’s Cradle, and Cat’s Cradle Back Room.